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Monday, August 15, 2016

House Changes--Part 5

After a long time in planning and a short time in looking, Ward and I put an offer in on a house. And then we waited a couple of days to see what the seller thought of our offer. As expected, she countered with a higher price which we accepted. And we were off to the races.

There were document after document after document to be sent to the lender. Title companies to be contacted. Home inspections to be scheduled--first the house, then the radon, then the septic, then the termite, Money for a survey. Money for this processing. Money for that paper. Money for this search, Money that inspection. Those of you who have bought a house know how it is. There is a lot involved. And a lot more after that. We have been meeting with our agent almost daily to sign another paper and follow up on contingencies.

The inspector found a badly leaking window here.

So among this flurry activity, the next big hurdle was the house inspection. The house looked pretty solid, but you never know what goes on behind the walls, so to speak. We met with the home inspector on Sunday at noon. (People buying and selling houses don't seem to keep any regular business hours.). He was a personable fellow that seemed to know his business. Luckily, Ward has some knowledge in the way houses work, so he was another set of eyes and ears that was examining things with the inspector. I tried to pay attention, but I have to admit, my mind was often in other places. I was trying to figure out how our furniture would fit in these new spaces and what I would want to change. At one point I took a trip to the closest grocery store to see how long it would take to get there--8 minutes. Pretty good.

The inspection that was supposed to take a couple of hours took almost five. I'm not sure why because there was no down time. I guess you could say that he did a very thorough job. The conclusion was that it was a solidly built house but it had some wear and tear on it. There were leaky windows, rotten wood, unsafe electrical panels, and high radon levels to list a few things on his report. Fourteen things in all that he recommended be fixed. But none of it was bad enough to scrap the deal. Things on houses wear out all the time. And safety codes change over time.

So we went back to the seller and asked for four things to be fixed. And she said she would give us a little money toward the fixes, but the house was good enough for her so it should be good enough for us. And once again we accepted it. It didn't sound like she was in a bargaining mood.

So the whole thing was becoming real and I started to aggressively get rid of stuff in our current house. There was a LOT to be done before this house was ready to go onto the market. The task seemed impossible to me. Especially in the middle of the night.

15 comments:

Congrats on having a contract on the house, but make sure you get enough money for the fixes. We had to replace our electrical panel a couple of years ago when we needed to get a new HOI company to cover our house since ours had dropped us, and it cost us several thousands of dollars just for that. They had sent someone over to inspect the house for electrical problems due to the age of the house and the panel, that had passed home inspection 14 years ago, had since then been deemed dangerous and outlawed, although we had no idea that it had!

The house is 27 years old. Some of the building codes have changed since it was built. Is that what happened to you?

We know that we are going to have to spend our own money to get most of the things fixed. The house is selling for less than it normally would because it hasn't been updated for a lot of years. So, we ask for things, but pretty much have to take what the owner says.

Our house is 86 years old. We had a very comprehensive house inspection that also took several hours (we were both present and followed the inspector around along with our agent) and yet we had a lot of problems once we moved in that required very very expensive and unexpected repairs pretty much as soon as we moved in. Going after the home inspector, according to the lawyer that we consulted, would have cost us more money and might not have resulted in a judgement in our favor if the inspector said there was no way he could have known about those specific problems. And maybe he couldn't have but it was still a tough pill to swallow.

Among other things ALL the appliances either died or had to be repaired in the year that we moved in (the fridge died the same day) so the home warranty that we had insisted on the seller to include came in handy. If the appliances are older (including the water heater), you might want to ask for that. Back then it only cost something like $300 a year, not sure what it would cost nowadays.

The electrical system in the main part of our house (the part built in 1930) isn't grounded, but at the time of our purchase, it was grandfathered in so we didn't have to replace it although we were told that it was very dangerous. Well, we've been here 14 years and so far so good, knock on wood. But the main electric panel for the house was the old kind with the knob fuses. It passed inspection back in 2002. Between 2002 and 2013 or 2014, that specific type and brand of panel was flagged as extremely dangerous because a lot of houses had gone up in flames due to it. So the insurance company that inspected our house refused to issue a policy unless we had it replaced. Since it had to be brought up to code and it was the main panel for the house, we also had to pay to have a riser installed on the roof because back when they had connected the electric wire from the electric pole in the backyard to that panel (years and years ago), the height of the wire connection was fine according to code but now it needed to be 3 feet higher (which frankly, suited me fine because I always thought that wire was too low and it made me nervous). So all this together meant that we had to spend $4,000 (I think it might even have been a little more, I've erased the real number from my memory) on that electric panel and riser for any insurer to cover our house. I suspect that when we go to sell it, we might have to completely rewire the house if the code now says that no house cannot be completely grounded. I'm afraid to ask the question because I'd rather not know until we have to know!

I understand the situation that you're in where you either have to accept the seller's terms or walk away from the house. I think I will be that kind of seller when it comes time to unload this house, lol! I hope most of your repairs will have to be cosmetic :)

After I got home from work today, I spent 3 hours on the phone and sending emails dealing with new house things. Tonight Ward and I have to go over a packet (60) pages that we got in the mail today and sign some things. Everything seems to be in hurry. But if we don't meet the settlement date, the owner can take the deal away.

I hope I sleep well tonight also. A good night's sleep doesn't happen as often as I want these days.

It has one story living including laundry (now we have bedrooms up and laundry in the basement, eat in kitchen and dining room (now we only have a dining room) a mudroom (none now), a larger family room, smaller yard (now we have two acres and this one has one) a separate workshop for Ward (he uses half of our garage now), different county than we presently live in (present county has lots of taxes and regulations), a living area in the basement including a bedroom and full bath, canning kitchen in unfinished part of basement, lots of storage, etc. There are things we want to update and change, but it's good as it is.

I'm not sure how the cats will adapt. I think it will take some transitioning. We don't have a good place to corral them in the new house like we do now in the present house. We like to keep them in the basement at night so we can get some sleep. One of the first orders of business will be to build a wall and fix a cat room in part of the unfinished basement area.

OK, Firefox froze up on me, so I'll try this again on Google Chrome. When my mom moved earlier this summer, the vet recommended she try a synthetic cat hormone to calm the cat and help him transition to his new environment, and I think it really helped. It is available in a variety of forms, but she used a plug-in diffuser in the room she thought he'd spend the most time in (which is tricky to determine in a new home--she went with where the litter box/food dish was placed). Here's the link if you are interested: http://www.feliway.com

Good advice. I had thought of it earlier, but had totally forgotten about it. I think that's the same brand my vet uses. Thanks.

I wish I could tell what was going on with your browsers, but I have no clue. I do know that I have to use only Firefox for somethings and Chrome for others because somethings won't work on one or the other of them.

Yowza! That was quick! So, what are you going to do to mitigate the radon? I have to admit that while I'm not at all envious of the work involved, the idea of a fresh start home-wise does sound somewhat appealing. Can't wait to hear more as this saga unfolds!

This area is on bedrock with naturally occurring radon. It's a problem in most places. To mitigate it, they drill a hole through the foundation and install a pipe that goes through the roof. In the pipe there is a fan that continuously draws the radon rich air from under the slab to above the roof. It's a fairly simple process that works well and cost about $900 to install. We have done it to the current house we live in. Although I have to admit that we only did it recently in anticipation of selling. Another thing we've been meaning to get to that just happened.

Congratulations on buying your new house! The process can be long and complicated but it is worth it in the end. Sounds like you had a very thorough inspection done and you were able to get some money for a few things. Good luck in your new home and I hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

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Ward and I live on a couple of acres in the suburbs. We go to work and then come home to spoil our four cats. Our sons, Wally and Theodore, drop by then and again to tell about their adventures.
See "Who Am I" tab for more info.